Corn farmers’ lament

The National Food Authority (NFA) has reportedly approved the importation of 200,000 metric tons of corn this year. Even if world corn prices are steadily on the rise, the government agency is justifying its decision by saying that the importations would not depress domestic corn prices since these would arrive during the so-called lean months when local corn supply is low.

Every year, our corn farmers are at odds with livestock and poultry producers who predictably ask the agriculture department to grant their request to bring in corn. The arguments have always been the same: there is just not enough local supply at the time most needed; the price is not right; and the available local corn is of inferior quality. And yearly, the livestock producers – mostly integrated poultry producers and feed millers – get their way.

This appears most unfair to local corn producers especially since until now, even when corn production in Mindanao could fill up producers’ storerooms to the rafters, it is still cheaper to import corn than for livestock integrators to transport them to Manila.

Changing scenario

But this scenario may not carry on forever. Major sources of our imported corn like the US and Brazil, while producing more corn, are keeping a bigger portion of these at home for ethanol production.

As crude oil prices have risen to unprecedented levels in the last three years, large oil users such as the US have been looking into cheaper oil substitutes.

In fact, while corn farmers in the US are happy about this development, their fellow farmers in the livestock and poultry sectors are increasingly getting restive. Bottom lines in these sectors are steadily being whittled down as added costs due to increasing corn prices have not been easy to pass on to consumers.

In recent months, the urgency to produce more corn-based ethanol has doubled the value of corn grain. This has had a bandwagon effect since attractive corn prices are encouraging more US farmers – currently producing crops such as soybeans, cotton, wheat, rice and vegetables – to switch to corn.

Petroleum alternative

Just recently, the US and Brazil, being the world’s biggest ethanol producers, reached a deal to promote the development of ethanol and other bio-fuels as an alternative to petroleum. These two countries account for close to 90 percent of global production.

Over the last 10 years, the bulk of corn grown in the US had gone to feed livestock and poultry; recently, however, ethanol producers have been aggressively cornering the domestic corn market. While all of US ethanol production is consumed locally, the demand has been growing at such rates that Americans have started to import raw materials from Brazil, which by the way also converts sugar to ethanol.

The United States Department of Agriculture said that an estimated five billion gallons of ethanol were produced last year utilizing about 20 percent of the corn harvest; by 2010, it predicts that 30 percent of corn production will be converted to some 11.5 billion gallons of ethanol.

The new reality now is that US will increasingly be relying on its corn as a source for its renewable fuel needs. This simply means that the Philippines, which heavily imports corn from the US, may not be able to import corn at old, ergo, cheaper prices.

No benefit to local corn farmers

Ironically, while global corn prices are expected to remain high because of rising demand in the US, local corn farmers are not benefiting.

Why so? There is no incentive for local corn farmers to increase their production and avail of high prices because they just do not have enough post-harvest facilities that would enable them to store the commodity and unload them at the proper time and reap the benefit of rising international prices.

Each year, tons of corns go to waste because of improper drying methods. Agriculture Secretary Arthur Yap keeps saying that he will start to do away with giving piecemeal money for livelihood generation projects, and really focus on providing the necessary agriculture infrastructure. If he is serious, then the corn producers should be his immediate concern.

Our corn farmers have been pointing out some rather simple solutions that could help increase local production: adequate post-harvest facilities to maximize the shelf life of corn, infrastructure such as farm-to-market roads, and cheap transport facilities.

Will Secretary Yap finally heed these repeated appeals?

Competition for poker finals seat ongoing

Francis Yan, Federico David and Graham Bone have secured hard-earned seats to the grand finals of the 3rd Philippine Poker Tour (PPT) Million-Peso Hold’Em Championship.

A keen golfer and tennis player as well, Yan displayed solid play as he captured the qualifying seat at the satellite tournament held recently at San Mig Alabang Town Center. On the other hand, David and Bone played steadily to survive six grueling hours of fast action poker play to nail a grand finals seat each during the first out-of-town satellite/qualifying tournament held at Casino Filipino Angeles in the province of Pampanga.

Winners of satellite tournaments are awarded guaranteed seats to the grand finals of the 3rd PPT Million-Peso Hold’Em Championship to be held on 7th and 8th July 2007. Seats to the grand finals are worth P30,000 (tournament fee) plus P3,000 (registration fee).

Poker tournament action shifts this Saturday, 24th March 2007, to Tagaytay City where Casino Filipino Tagaytay will host the first Southern Tagalog satellite/qualifying tournament. Registration starts at 1 pm and tournament begins at 2 p.m.

Qualifying/satellite tournaments are also scheduled in the following venues for the month of March: San Mig Alabang Town Center, every Wednesdays and Fridays, and Airport Casino on 31st March.

More details of the prize structure and tournament rules can be found in the official PPT website, www.PhilippinePokerTour.com. Interested parties may also call the PPT Secretariat (c/o Cindy) at 817-9092 or 812-0153.

Should you wish to share any insights, write me at Link Edge, 4th Floor, 156 Valero Street, Salcedo Village , 1227 Makati City. Or e-mail me at [email protected] or at [email protected]. For previous columns, visit my website at http://bizlinks.linkedge.biz.